New Version of Villa Next Door
Dear reader!
As Villa Next Door 2 has reached its maximum of 3 GB it will stop here, but i will continue in a new blog called Villa Next Door 3 (you guessed it!). Click here to go to Villa Next Door 3 (and don’t forget to renew your subscription there!!).
See you there!
Bertus Pieters
On the occasion of the Erasmus Prize award to Grayson Perry (1960), The Hague Kunstmuseum has made a small presentation of his work.
Perry was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2021 amongst others because of his “ability to unite a divided public, showing us that art can be a platform for an open and inclusive debate.”
Indeed Perry goes to great lengths to be liked and to shock, to entertain and to criticize.
He does so using very different materials and genres, as you can see here; his messages are never authoritarian, let alone authoritative.
Although he does use texts, his visual language is very direct but without simplification.
The show itself presents some interesting examples of what Perry is known for, like ceramics, cloths, tapestries etc.
The exhibition being modest, the nature of the work is such that there is visually quite a bit on offer.
Personally i enjoyed it, and it is worth seeing when you happen to be in the museum.
Now that you’ve come here, you might as well subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!
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© Villa Next Door 2022
Contents of all photographs courtesy to Grayson Perry, the owners of the works and Kunstmuseum, Den Haag.
Bertus Pieters
VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!!
A few days ago i visited How Rest the Brave at Nest to write an article for Villa La Repubblica. Click here to read the article in VLR (in Dutch)
As I have written quite extensively about the exhibition in VLR, I just leave you here with some impressions.
Be reminded though that the show is in its last week now, so hurry if you want to see it (which I highly recommend).
Click here to read the article in Villa La Repubblica (in Dutch)
Now that you’ve come here, you might as well subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!
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© Villa Next Door 2022
Contents of all photographs courtesy to all artists and Nest, Den Haag.
Bertus Pieters
VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!!
Double villa Seinpostduin corner Zeekant, Scheveningen, along the beach.
The building was designed by the beginning of the 20th century by architect Johan Mutters (1858-1930).
Mutters was a fashionable modern architect, interior designer and urban planner of the Art Nouveau era, which is quite obvious in this double villa.
There are more stylish buildings designed by him in The Hague.
Later on he would design in a more Rationalist style.
This particular building was meant to be a hotel (which it partly still is), as part of the development of Scheveningen, turning from a poor fishing village into a posh seaside resort and spa around the turn of the century.
There are influences of half-timbered houses and chalets from Germany to render it a holiday feel.
The building is a municipal architectural monument.
Today it has to compete with horrible monstrosities that seem to have been designed to scare off any evil intrusion from overseas.
© Villa Next Door 2022
All pictures were taken in June 2017.
Bertus Pieters
Façades of The Hague from #72 onwards: https://villanextdoor2.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/
Façades of The Hague #1 – 71: https://villanextdoor.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/
VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!
Last week the artists of Hgtomi Rosa organised an open studio event from Thursday to Sunday.
Hgtomi Rosa are Jan-Dirk Adams, Daniele Formica, Jiao Jiao Li, Yukari Nakamichi, Constantijn Scholten, Laura Snijders and Alex Webber.
They are artists who are not just making art to show it in a gallery, hoping to sell it at a nice price to a nice art lover or collector.
They are artists who are interested in the making of art as a process related to the appreciation of art.
Their works of art are not just developed to become autonomous and authoritative objects; the relations between the viewer, the space, other objects, the reason why a work of art is presented in a certain way, are just as important, if not more important.
To them making art is not just a material process, it is an intellectual or emotive experience in which the viewer can take part.
Within that context these artists don’t just make paintings and drawings, they also make installations, do performances, and they organise situations in which the viewer can feel free to participate and have his/her own experience.
As a viewer you need not feel compelled to participate, but the artists are as interested in your experience with their work as you are in their work.
To them art is something to be shared.
For the occasion each artist presented a new work of art in the front space of the building.
As usual the artists were hospitable, and their studios showed almost inexhaustible streams of ideas and inspiration.
It is important in a city like The Hague to have a bunch of energetic and talented young artists around who want more than the aesthetics of autonomous art.
It is all the more disappointing that in a city like The Hague, with its cosmopolitan aspirations, giving opportunities to these artists isn’t high enough on the agenda, in spite of the things that have indeed been achieved.
Of course, as a young artist you are perfectly well aware of the fact that being an artist is not the easiest way of life.
However, building a normal life is a complicated and expensive business these days, let alone if you want to build a life as an artist.
The tyranny of the market has penetrated all veins of life, it is preached as the common religion of our society, and it wants young artists like these to be competitive, instead of doing what they are good at.
But let’s not get too gloomy (being gloomy definitely doesn’t help), as, after all, the energy and inspiration given by people like these artists is valuable, and it was there to be experienced during the open studio days.
So, if you missed this, be sure to attend next time Hgtomi Rosa presents something!
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© Villa Next Door 2022
Contents of all photographs courtesy to the seven artists
Bertus Pieters
VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!!
Pim Piët (1954) is an artist who is fully aware of the fact that he lives in a world with other artists, amongst others.
They too shape his artistic framework and he gives in to that with sincere attention.
Moreover, he has been a keen art collector during his artistic career.
Presently at Bos Fine Art he shows a modest retrospective of his own works in combination with examples from his collection of works by others.
It gives a very lively idea of his own artistic development, ranging from 1977 to 2022, combined with works by famous names like Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) or Lawrence Weiner (1942-2021), and young artists like Wieteke Heldens (1982) and Fabiola van den Berg (1995).
In these works by others there is, of course, a great deal of abstraction, but also of conceptualism, and Piët shares an ironic sense of humour with some of them.
The oldest work by Piët in the exhibition is a work from 1977 which hangs as a kind of tribute next to a painting by Tomas Rajlich (1940), his teacher in the 1970s, who had a decisive influence on his ideas about art making.
Since then a lot has happened, and a lot is still happening as his recent works show.
There are influences of music and sound, and of non-western cultures, especially the Japanese.
The exhibition goes with a fine small but comprehensive catalogue showing most of the exhibited works, but if you want to see the real thing you have to be quick. The works are still on show over the weekend.
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© Villa Next Door 2022
Contents of all photographs courtesy to Pim Piët, all other artists and Bos Fine Art, Den Haag.
Bertus Pieters
VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!!
“I’m the last of the best”
– Dr. John, Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya, 1968
Probably they are neither the last nor the best ones, but every artist should do the best to his/her own standards, and create as if he/she is the last.
Thijs Jaeger (1990) and Bobbi Oskam (1990) seem to be unlikely partners in a duo-show, but Hok Gallery clearly didn’t mind and they are both their own lasts and bests.
You could consider works by both artists as manifestations of the inner self, but of course that is much too sweeping a statement to define a common denominator of their imaginative worlds.
You might say Jaeger uses his incantations to exorcise Oskam’s nasty dreams.
You might also say Oskam’s drawings are there to bring Jaeger’s objects back to the real world.
Whatever you want to do or figure out, fate will always knock on your door, undeterred and undeceived by amulets and fetishes.
Your dreams will haunt you, as reality will also haunt you anyway, and in the end you’d better experience them for what they are and see their aesthetics.
Well, of course, both artists’ present Gris-Gris show is not all that heavy-hearted.
Hok Gallery always guarantees a bit of a tongue-in-cheek approach, such that its visitors will never be seriously pounced on by any demons.
So, feel safe to see it all, today, tomorrow or on Saturday (3-4-5 March).
Now that you’ve come here, you might as well subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!
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© Villa Next Door 2022
Contents of all photographs courtesy to Bobbi Oskam, Thijs Jaeger and HOK Gallery, Den Haag.
Bertus Pieters
VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!!
Buildings with apartments and studios, north façade of the so-called Lissabonplein (Lisbon Square), Kazernestraat.
The square connects the former 18th century courtyard called Het Lissabon (The Lisbon) near Denneweg, with Kazernestraat.
The houses were built mainly in the 1930s with later modifications and additions. It is a particularly peaceful part of the city centre, with arts and crafts studios.
The name Lissabon probably derives from Sephardic Jews who used to live around the former courtyard.
© Villa Next Door 2021
All pictures were taken in March 2017.
Bertus Pieters
Façades of The Hague from #72 onwards: https://villanextdoor2.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/
Façades of The Hague #1 – 71: https://villanextdoor.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/
VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!
From May 2nd 2020 onwards i started categorising photo reports about exhibitions in Villa Next Door under the header Art in corona times.
By that time the corona restrictions were already intensely experienced by the arts sector. These days Covid-19 is still there but the heaviest lockdown measures have been lifted, so Art in corona times will be history for the time being. Art in corona times started with a visit to SinArts Gallery . I hadn’t seen Alex Lebbink, SinArts’ gallerist, for quite some time and he had organised time slots for individual visitors. The idea was that the corona measures would be very temporary and that i would use the label Art in corona times for a few postings, just to see how galleries and other art platforms were doing during the crisis and after that it would be more or less business as usual. However, that proved to be quite naive. Corona became a way of life in which the arts were not seen as an essential need in life. At first artists and other professionals were more or less empathetic to that idea, but as the crisis went on and on, the government’s sheer lack of interest for the arts became a thorn in the flesh of many an art professional, especially after the health minister’s remark that if you cannot go to the theatre you might as well stay at home and see a dvd, as if there was no difference between the two. Last week i posted Art in corona times 101 with some extra footage of the interesting exhibition about Aad de Haas at the Chabot Museum in Rotterdam and that was the last one under the corona banner.
For those who want to have an idea of what was on show during the pandemic Art in corona times is easily locatable in Villa Next Door.
Lockdowns etc are over now but that doesn’t mean the worries about this or any other virus are gone.
Covid-19 may return with a more dangerous version, and an altogether new and equally or more dangerous virus may come. The question is not if it will come, but when it will come. The bird flu virus being one of the most obvious contenders in the real viral world. Another worry in the aftermath of corona is the questionable urge of authorities to control everything and everybody, if possible with modern technology. This urge is understandable as authorities of any political colour try to influence social processes for the benefit of society as a whole. However, even before the Corona crisis it has already been proven that this urge to control has turned against citizens, as a holy faith in the objectivity of modern technology, market forces and a reduction of the state to a kind of control device has replaced a democracy in which different opinions in society play a role. Villa Next Door is not the place to make a deep analysis about society, politics, the free market, modern technology, the influence of debilitating conspiracy theories, and a considerable chunk of society that rather believes in so-called alternative facts than in real facts, that prefers evil tales to science. However this is the framework – as i see it – in which art is made, seen and presented today in this country, and i want to be clear about the context in which i give you my reports about exhibitions and art in this blog. After all, you don’t have to agree, but you should know. Another worry is the new situation with the war in Ukraine. One might suggest i should replace Art in corona times with Art in war times. However, the Netherlands are at the moment not at war with any other country. Also, it should be said that another devastating war is going on in Yemen for seven years now. Although this is principally a civil war, it has become internationalised, with other countries in the Middle East intervening. The conflict in Ukraine may have a global significance, or rather, it will have, even if the war itself remains physically limited to Ukraine. That, together with the devils unleashed during the Corona crisis, will bring us interesting but also ominous times. So, in the mean time, i repost some pictures here of some highlights of Art in corona times.
Hope to see you soon in real life or in this blog, stay healthy and sane, and keep your eyes open!
Now that you’ve come here, you might as well subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!
(Right click to enlarge pictures)
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© Villa Next Door 2022
Contents of all photographs courtesy to all artists, galleries, art platforms, museums and owners of the works.
Bertus Pieters
VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!!
Buildings with apartments and studios, south façade of the so-called Lissabonplein (Lisbon Square), Kazernestraat.
The square connects the former 18th century courtyard called Het Lissabon (The Lisbon) near Denneweg, with Kazernestraat.
The houses were built mainly in the 1930s with later modifications and additions.
It is a particularly peaceful part of the city centre, with arts and crafts studios.
The name Lissabon probably derives from Sephardic Jews who used to live around the former courtyard.
© Villa Next Door 2021
All pictures were taken in March 2017.
Bertus Pieters
Façades of The Hague from #72 onwards: https://villanextdoor2.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/
Façades of The Hague #1 – 71: https://villanextdoor.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/
VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!
Villa Next Door 2 